Thanks to your support, over 50 women in West Java have become the first in Indonesia to undertake Opportunity’s community health leader training.


The program in Indonesia draws on learnings from five years of working with families in northern India to improve health outcomes. In both countries, health can be a significant obstacle for families hoping to work their way out of poverty.

Extensive community consultation informed the health leader curriculum which is tailored to local families, focusing on topics such as mosquito-borne diseases, tuberculosis, and water, sanitation and hygiene issues. Families living in poverty often lack knowledge about hygiene and health, but with the high costs of treatment, prevention is crucial.

The community health leader solution is simple and highly effective—local women are trained to teach their communities basic health, hygiene and nutrition skills and information, while also providing access to health-related products and services like sanitary napkins and first aid. Health leaders receive six months of training and spend the next six months sharing health information with their communities. In Java, the training is almost complete and the health leaders will soon begin reaching out to their communities with essential health support.